High-energy Jared Allen motivated to be the best

Jared Allen now only causes trouble for opponents, as Bears left tackle Chris Williams will surely find out Monday night.

Matt Trowbridge

Jared Allen now only causes trouble for opponents, as Bears left tackle Chris Williams will surely find out Monday night.

“It’s going to be a tough match-up for Chris all day long over there,” Bears quarterback Jay Cutler said. “We’ve got to help him and put some more guys on him and get some chip (blocks). That’s what you have to do against a defensive end of his caliber.”

Allen has 6.5 sacks in three games against the Bears since joining the Vikings last year.

“He has a nonstop motor,” Bears coach Lovie Smith said. “He plays the game the way you want it played.”

Allen is an unlikely poster player for the ideal NFL pass rusher. Kansas City drafted him in the fourth round out of tiny Idaho State. And while he was a great player from the start with the Chiefs, he also caused almost as much trouble there as former Bear lineman Tank Johnson did in Chicago. Allen has been arrested three times for DUI, including twice only five months apart in 2006.

That’s part of the reason the Chiefs traded him to Minnesota for a Cutleresque ransom of a No. 1 draft pick and two No. 3s after he led the NFL with 15.5 sacks in 2007.

But he’s been near perfect, both on and off the field, in Minnesota (11-3). Allen has 28 sacks in 30 games for the Vikings, who play at Chicago (5-9) on Monday.

“He’s unique in a lot of ways,” Vikings coach Brad Childress said on a teleconference. “He’s obviously as high a motor guy as you will find on the football field from sideline to sideline.

“People talk about his pass rush skills, but in the locker room, he’s a great teammate. He’s a great worker in practice. There’s been a couple of missteps along the way, but he’s a great person. He’s fun to be around. He gives you great personality in the locker room, which I think you need.”

Allen likes to joke. In his first Monday night game, he told the cameras he was home schooled. Last year, he claimed he went to Culinary Academy on his Monday night pregame ESPN introduction.

But one thing he doesn’t joke about is being a former fourth-round pick.

“I still hate everybody who was drafted ahead of me,” Allen said. “It’s a motivating factor. You wait all that time, until Day 2 (of the draft), and you want to prove to everybody that you are the real deal.

“For me, football is all about earning the respect of other players. Every time I go on the field, I want to show everybody that I’m one of the best at what I do. Then, at the end of the day, I can look myself in the eye and carry my family name proudly.”

And that’s why Allen has such a high motor, charging the quarterback at top speed play after play after play.

“I learned a long time ago from my college coach, the more you put yourself around the ball, the more plays you can make,” Allen said. “I take a lot of pride in my technique and my ability, but it doesn’t matter how good your technique is or how talented you are if you are — if you are not in shape enough to be around the ball, you are never going to make the play.”

Matt Trowbridge can be reached at 815-987-1383 or mtrowbridge@rrstar.com.